This invention was the subject matter of Document Disclosure Program Registration #497955, filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Aug. 6, 2001.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of bird feeder arrangements in general; and in particular to a bird feeder construction whose bird feed dispenser is fabricated from a conventional beverage receptacle.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,195,463; 4,664,066; 4,712,512; and, 4,732,112, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse suspended bird feeder arrangements.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical bird feeder construction that is cheap and easy to fabricate, and which employs a conventional transparent beverage receptacle as the seed dispensing reservoir.
As most bird fanciers are all too well aware, most commercially available bird feeders are very expensive to purchase which limits their widespread usage and minimizes the number of birds that can be attracted to a particular viewing location.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need among bird lovers for a new and improved bird feeder construction that is quick, easy and inexpensive to build thereby assuring its widespread acceptance and usage; and the provision of such a construction is a stated objective of the present invention.
Briefly stated, the bird feeder construction that forms the basis of the present invention comprises in general: a base unit; a feed dispensing unit; and a stabilizing support unit for the feed dispensing unit wherein, the feed dispensing unit comprises a slightly physically altered conventional beverage receptacle preferably fabricated from transparent plastic so that the feed level within the feed dispensing unit is readily apparent.
As will be explained in greater detail further on in the specification, the base unit comprises a general flat rectangular base member which the stabilizing support unit rests upon and is operatively connected thereto.
The stabilizing support unit comprises in general a framework member having a front wall which is slidably received within a pair of side walls fixedly secured to a rear wall; wherein, both the front and rear walls are provided with opposed apertures that are adapted to engage the front and rear sides of the neck portion of a conventional beverage receptacle; and wherein, the opposed apertures are adapted to receive an elongated rod member that penetratingly engages the neck portion of the beverage receptacle to pivotally suspend the beverage receptacle within the framework member.
In addition, the framework member also includes a pair of cross-arm elements attached to the front and rear walls of the framework member; wherein, the cross-arm elements frictionally engage the opposed sides of the neck portion of the beverage receptacle to maintain the beverage receptacle in a vertically upright position to dispense the seed onto the base member.